HSK 4 Grammar 17: "If" statements
HSK · HSK · HSK 4 Tema 17 3:12 Narración en inglés · Subtítulos en inglés + 中文 quemados en pantalla
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Transcripción
One pattern owns this topic. Yaoshi, dot, dot, dot, jiu is the everyday spoken if then, the chatty twin of ruguo, especially common in northern China. The condition leads, and jiu stamps the consequence. Like its twin, remembering the jiu is exactly what the exam checks, because a yaoshi sentence without its jiu reads as unfinished.
The structure is yaoshi plus the condition, then jiu plus the result. Ni yaoshi zhen de xiang wo, jiu gei wo da dianhua, if you really miss me, then call me. Yaoshi mingtian bu xiayu, women jiu qu pashan, if it doesn't rain tomorrow, we'll go hiking. Yaoshi is the chatty ruguo, same if, more spoken, and both fire jiu in the result clause. The jiu belongs to the pattern; drop it and the sentence hangs in the air waiting.
Two extras make this pattern feel lived-in. Yaobushi is the counterfactual, if it weren't for: yaobushi duche, wo zao jiu dao le, if not for the traffic, I'd have been here long ago. And after a subject, yaoshi can shrink to yao: ni yao bu lai, women jiu kaishi le, if you don't come, we'll start without you. The try-it sentence plans a picnic: yaoshi zhouliu tianqi hao, women jiu zai gongyuan yecan. Check each one and you find the same stamp: every sentence keeps its jiu.
Put the family in one table. Yaoshi jiu, chatty and spoken. Ruguo jiu, the neutral if. Jishi ye, the even-if from topic sixteen, a supposition overridden. Notice the pairs: the two ifs take jiu, and the even-if takes ye. Mixing those particles is the classic exam error, so the table is the revision card: choose the feeling first, then let the feeling choose the particle.
Two watch-outs close the teaching. First, the jiu belongs to the pattern: yaoshi mingtian bu xiayu, women qu pashan reads unfinished without it, because the stamp is what says then. Second, yaoshi introduces a condition you are waiting on, not a fact; when you need to contrast two real facts, the suiran danshi frame from topic fifteen is the tool, and mixing the two jobs is the error this whole family guards against.
Pause and check both. First, jiu opens the result clause of a yaoshi sentence. Second, even if it doesn't rain is the overridden supposition, so it takes jishi ye, not either if-pattern. The remaining review items: yaoshi is the more casual twin, yaobushi duche means if it weren't for the traffic I'd have been here long ago, and the picnic plan is yaoshi zhouliu tianqi hao, women jiu zai gongyuan yecan. Say one if-sentence about your own weekend before you close this deck.